musical musings from the frozen north:
torontopia, mont royal city and kawartha kottages

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

2013 cleanup

Everyone knows no good new records
ever get released in early January, which is why I spent most of this month’s
Waterloo Record column reviewing albums I missed from the end of 2013. See
also: yesterday’s review of the magical Nick Buzz album.

This album was recorded in Bamako, Mali,
over seven days last October. Damon Albarn arrived with Brian Eno, Nick Zinner
of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others, and set up a studio at a local youth
centre. They corralled the best young local acts they could find—perhaps
through word of mouth via the more established acts Albarn booked on the U.K.
tour called Africa Express—and somehow came out of that week with an 11-song
album that is an embarrassment of riches. There’s no mistaking the Malian roots
here—koras and n’gonis abound, and the sound is familiar to anyone familiar
with Rokia Traoré, Ali Farka Touré or Amadou and Mariam—but Maison Des Jeunes
is modern and vibrant. Though there are some stripped-down, gorgeous acoustic
tracks—the likes of which you might expect—there are also roaring electric
guitars, modern electronics and hip-hop influences enhancing and playing off
the traditional instrumentation, while the drumming is, naturally, phenomenal
(especially on tracks by Lil Silva and the Lobi Traoré Band).

There are no African names here recognizable
to Western audiences—yet. You’re unlikely to hear a better compilation of music
from any genre or continent for the rest of the year. (Jan. 23)

As will quickly become
evident in this entry of 2013 catch-up, I barely listened to any country music
in the last 12 months. But I can’t imagine anything being better than Brandy
Clark.

When you’re a songwriter
for hire, even when you’re in your mid-30s and you’ve scored Nashville hits for
Miranda Lambert, LeAnn Rimes, and newcomer Kacey Musgraves, there’s some
subject matter best kept to yourself. Singers like a sure thing; risks are few—despite
the fact that the likes of Lambert and Musgraves owe a large part of their
success for their resistance to complacent country music stereotypes.

Though Brandy Clark is
musically conservative—12 Stories is note-perfect, tasteful, conventional country—she
throws caution to the wind when penning narratives of sin, sex, revenge and
regret. Clark’s characters cheat, carouse, imbibe and inhale—mostly because the
men in their life have let them down: “Boy, if you build a fire, you better bet
she’s got a match.” Clark can be deadly serious, a bonafide tearjerker, yet
also has a wicked and cheeky side: the protagonist in “Stripes” resists
wreaking violent revenge on her ex-husband because, as she says, “There’s no
crime of passion worth a crime in fashion / the only thing saving your life is
that I don’t look good in orange and I hate stripes.”

This album is called 12
Stories for a reason: they are Alice Munro-meets-Elmore Leonard in miniature. And yet despite the
fact that two of these songs were previously recorded by LeAnn Rimes and Reba
McEntire—and Clark also has a Grammy nomination for Kacey Musgraves’s “Follow
Your Arrow”—this powerhouse debut was, sadly, obscure outside of critics’
circles (I only discovered it after reading some year-end lists), released to
little fanfare in October by a tiny label with only one other artist on its
roster. In yet another year when mainstream country deserved so much mockery
(just Google “Grady Smith” and “Gawker” for an illustrative video montage of
2013’s crimes against country music), it’s no wonder Clark was held up as a
beacon of light. (Jan. 2)

Download: “Stripes,” “Hold
My Hand,” “Hungover “

Robbie Fulks – Gone Away
Backward (Bloodshot)

Fulks was a leading light
of the alt-country scene of the late ’90s, a wiseacre who revelled in wordplay,
one-liners and sharp satire, but who also demanded to be taken seriously. He
had clearly studied all the country music songwriting greats, and didn’t want
to settle for being anything less than in their company.

Fulks has not been as active
in recent years; I’ll admit I also lost track. But on Gone Away Backward, he’s
sounding better than ever: no longer a joker, his wit is instead focused
entirely on capturing the pain and disappointment of the New Depression, set to
entirely acoustic arrangements featuring little more than guitar, banjo,
fiddle, bass and four-part harmony. Even the instrumental tracks stand
out—which, for a wordsmith like Fulks, says a lot about his evolution as a
songwriter. (Jan. 2)

Download: “I’ll Trade You
Money for Wine,” “Where I Fell,” “Sometimes the Grass is Really Greener”

Patty Griffin – Silver
Bell (A&M)

Patty Griffin – American
Kid (New West)

Silver Bell, released in
October, is Patty Griffin’s third album. American Kid, released five months
earlier, is her eighth. You follow? The singer/songwriter, who has written hits
for a who’s who of Nashville and is a current collaborator (personal and
professional) with Robert Plant, has a long and varied career, and American Kid
is worth the while of any roots music fan—that almost goes without saying at
this stage in Griffin’s career.

Silver Bell is a whole
other story. Recorded in New Orleans at Daniel Lanois’s Kingsway Studio in
2000, it was shelved by her record label. She re-recorded some songs for later albums;
others were covered by the Dixie Chicks; the whole project was widely
bootlegged and a fan favourite. Said record company finally decided to release
it 13 years later, recently remixed by Glyn Johns (The Who, Eric Clapton)—which
must be bittersweet for Griffin, as it’s an astounding album, one that vastly
overshadows her newer material.

Here, she sounds like an
amalgam of Emmylou Harris, Kathleen Edwards, Lucinda Williams and Sam Phillips,
both vocally and in terms of songwriting heft. Musically, there’s little here
that sounds like Nashville at all: there are Arabic motifs, New Orleans
rhythms, scorching electric guitar, raw rockers that wouldn’t be out of place
on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville or Weeping Tile’s Cold Snap, and, on the
fuzzed-out “Perfect White Girls,” what sounds like a template for everything
Melissa McClelland currently does in Whitehorse.

Eclecticism aside, the
songs are fantastic, and it’s hard to imagine them ever sounding better than
they do here, in Griffin’s hands, with this band, in this studio. No one said
the music business ever made sense, but better late than never to hear this
Silver Bell ring. (Jan. 2)

This new Hamilton singer/producer
grew up loving ’90s R&B, which is obvious in her cooing vocal melodies and
some of her rhythmic approaches. Her production style—with help from Junior
Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan—is far from slick or glossy, filled as it is with analog
synthesizers, skittering beats that draw from underground strains of house
music, and long instrumental passages that sound like remixes of Top 40 hits
where only hints of the hook are evident. Lanza makes it all work, coming off
like a more mainstream Grimes at times, but is best enjoyed in small doses; the
album as a whole feels featherweight. (Jan. 9)

Download: “Keep Moving,” “F--k
Diamond,” “Against the Wall”

Lenka Lichtenberg – Embrace
(independent)

Born in Prague, based in Toronto,
singing in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and English, Lenka Lichtenberg is a klezmer
vocalist who intertwines her various musical sources until they become
indistinguishable, bound together only by her voice. She gets comparisons to
Loreena McKennitt, which are not unwarranted: there’s a similar pristine vocal
tone and meticulous, delicate arrangements designed for concert theatres where
you can hear a pin drop. That’s in part why it’s refreshing to hear Guelph
remixer Eccodek get his hands on the track “Open My Eyes” and breathe some life
into it (you can hear it on Soundcloud). Hopefully that collaboration convinces
Lichtenberg to pump some bass into her musical backbone. (Jan. 9)

Download: “Open My Eyes,” “Raise a Cup of Joy,” “Vayn fun
lebn”

Alison Moyet – The Minutes (Cooking
Vinyl)

Thirty years ago, Alison Moyet left
her first band, the electro duo Yazoo. Her solo career since then was full of
ups and downs and label frustration, followed by a long period of silence. The
Minutes is her return—in parts—to the electronic backdrops that contrast and
complement her soulful voice perfectly. Sadly for Yazoo fans, that doesn’t mean
a return to the disco or experimental pop heard on the classic Upstairs at
Eric’s—that was another time, another place. “Suddenly the landscape has
changed” is the first lyric Moyet sings here. Of course, it’s not exactly
sudden, but hearing her come even within close proximity of the sound that
spawned her talent on the world is a relief.

Moyet now makes adult pop music the
way any 52-year-old British singer would, somewhere between the polarities of
Massive Attack and Kylie Minogue. Working with producer Guy Sigsworth (Seal,
Bjork, Alanis Morissette), who drenches her many minor-key melodies in
melancholic pomp. At its worst, it drowns out Moyet herself; the best moments
happen when they either strip everything back (“Filigree”) or write a major-key
pop anthem (“When I Was Your Girl”) or take their sole excursion onto the dance
floor (“Right as Rain”).

Moyet has a voice that demands to be
heard; hopefully this album is just the first step of a larger comeback. (Jan.
16)

Download: “When I Was Your Girl,”
“Right as Rain,” “Filigree”

Doug Tielli
– Keresley (Tin Angel)

Doug Tielli, Martin’s youngest
brother, has been making music for almost 20 years, and yet Keresley is only
his second solo album. Recorded in the titular rural British town (30 minutes
east of Birmingham), Keresley features little more than Tielli’s gorgeous,
elastic voice, acoustic guitar, drums and trombone. Sometimes he channels Nick
Drake, sometimes his acoustic guitar sounds like a Malian kora, sometimes it
feels like he’s back home in Toronto playing improv at the Music Gallery with
jazz-informed players. It’s lilting and lovely. Tielli has spent most of his
career playing well with others, but he’s even better when left entirely to his
own devices. (Jan. 9)